


Burn

by nick_i_kenicki



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Catharsis, Childhood Memories, Communication, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Friendship, Gen, Haircuts, Light Angst, Sibling Bonding, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25617334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nick_i_kenicki/pseuds/nick_i_kenicki
Summary: Vanya and Klaus are alone together at The Umbrella Academy and decide to talk for what feels like the first time since they were kids. The pair also bond over similar issues in their shared past.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 103





	Burn

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I been working on a tua fic for like a year and only decided ro upload one a few hours before season 2, what of it? Anyways this isn't beta read so I hope there isn't too many problems.

The Umbrella Academy was either too loud or too quiet. They had days where fights took place in the corridors and the building shook like it was going to come down and days where it seemed more like a haunted house. Empty halls where only Grace and Pogo wandered.

Vanya found she suited the quiet and Klaus suited the noise. That's why it felt strange when they realized they were the only ones left there together.

Vanya drifted down from her room and startled when she saw Klaus rifling through a bookshelf. There was a pile of ransacked literature next to him on the floor and old pictures.

A tiny picture of herself fell from one of the overturned books. Opposed to the others in their decadent family portrait, Vanya's picture looked like a mugshot used only for files. She picked it up and handed it back to Klaus.

"Looking for something?" She asked.

Klaus took the picture back and sighed. "Yeah. Everybody left and Diego was my ride so I'm trying to see if some cash I put in these books is still here."

Despite her apprehension, Vanya went to the other edge of the shelf. "I can help you look," she said with a little shrug. There was a strange lump in her throat, some unshakable fear that he'd tell her to go away like they were kids all over again.

Klaus just looked at her, then nodded. "Yeah okay. Thanks." He didn't mind her and went back to flipping through the pages of a thick cookbook.

Vanya did the same, all the while keeping him in her peripheral vision. When they were kids, she always thought Klaus was fun. Now that she was older she couldn't say. He was scrappy like an old alley cat. Even his chapter in her book referenced how he'd leave at will toward the end and only come back for meals. There was something else though. Something she couldn't quite place.

"You know I kind of always looked up to you," Vanya said in a tiny voice. She didn't expect to voice her thoughts."Between us, it was hard to tell who got the most shit from Dad." She managed to flash Klaus a defeated smile. A lifetime of 'getting over it' squeezed into one gesture."You weren't like me, though. You always got back up."

"I'd hardly call a nearly decade long on and off relationship with rehab getting back up," Klaus said with a joyless chuckle. He twirled his hand around his face as a little acknowledgment. "I do appreciate it though."

Vanya relaxed at his willingness to talk and moved a little closer. "It's true though. Like, remember that time you wore nail polish to a press conference? The glittery blue color? I thought Dad was going to kill you for real that day."

Klaus cracked a genuine smile at that memory. "Me too. I was absolutely scared shitless. I didn't know what he'd do. I was surprised that all I got was a lecture on how frills were useless and how he wasn't mad that I was wearing nail polish."

"– but that it wasn't uniform," the two of them chimed simultaneously.

They laughed. Reginald was a broken record. So much so, that it would be almost impossible for any of the Hargreeves children to forget his strict rules on uniformity. They had the tattoos to prove it. Well, most of them did anyway.

"I didn't know you even knew about that incident," Klaus said. He put the books in his hand down, done with that endeavor.

Vanya laughed. "Of course. I always thought it was so cool how you did what you wanted."

Klaus rolled his eyes and scoffed at the idea that anything he did was 'cool'. 

"No really," Vanya insisted. "I always wished I could do something out of the ordinary."

Klaus thought about it for a moment, then moved so he was facing her. Scrutinizing her.

"Well, why don't you then? You're not so bad underneath all of this," he said, pulling her close to examine her hair. Klaus knew he had no room to talk about style when his clothes consisted of donation bin blouses and Allison's hand-me-downs, but he had an idea. He grabbed about an inch or two of her hair on either side and asked. "Have you ever cut it short?"

"What? And relinquish my last shred of femininity?" Her face turned serious. "Wouldn't I look weird?"

Klaus shrugged. "Well Dad's not here to get all pissy that you have an actual personality, so I thought we'd try this thing called 'self expression'."

"What is that?" Vanya joked while making a face. "Sounds illegal."

Klaus smiled and played along. "I don't know, it might be a little too much for you. This is something I think everybody ought to try once though. Gotta find something to cut with though."

They moved to the kitchen to find any utensils. The place was spotless as evident by Grace's handiwork but almost absolutely empty.

Aside from Diego's old set, the house was an absolute nightmare for finding anything even slightly resembling a point. It was like all the weapons had been purged.

"Oh, dear old Dad was so scared that we'd copycat in grief that he disappeared all the sharps." Klaus said while shaking his head. He pressed a pair of plastic construction paper scissors he dug out of a drawer to his throat and mimed choking to prove his point.

"We could 'borrow' one from Diego," Klaus added with an innocent little shrug.

Vanya deadpanned. "And risk getting cut? No thank you."

"Oh come on. He would never cut you."

"No, Klaus. He would never cut you."

They exchanged a glance, an awkward pause for the unfortunate implications. It was obvious they both wanted to speak, but somehow they both decided to drop it. Klaus twirled the scissors around his fingers. "Anyways, I'm sure we can make do with just this. Come on."

Vanya let herself be led to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet lid. Without much build up or warning, Klaus took a handful of hair and started cutting. Even though Vanya's hair wasn't exactly thick, the blunt scissors chopped through it like rope. Locks of dull brown fell to the floor around her.

She glanced up and watched Klaus style her. The sight of him struck her, or rather the realization that they had never been physically close before. She couldn't help but ask, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Klaus didn't stop cutting, but Vanya could tell he was thrown. He thought for a moment then sucked his teeth. "Guilt? Shame? I don't know." He dusted off her shoulders and continued. "I saw how everybody was and knew all you needed to do was get out of there."

Suddenly Vanya felt bad, like she was somehow blaming him. "No, you couldn't–" 

"I could have," Klaus said. "I could have tried."

Vanya could have honestly said the same for him, but she didn't have the right words. She just sat in silence for the rest of the cut and relaxed unto the feeling of Klaus' fingers fluttering over her ears. 

"All done," Klaus eventually said.

Vanya stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. It was . . . good? Certainly messy, but like it was done on purpose. The kind of grown out pixie people worked hard to achieve. For once she didn't feel plain.

". . . I love it," Vanya said in a wistful voice.

Klaus looked proud of himself as he swept all her hair into his hand. He spilled the little pile into her hands and said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Now we burn it."

Despite the questions she had. Vanya just went along with him. The cut back through the house and toward the backyard. On the way there, Klaus stalled at the painting they had gotten done with Reginald.

"And how about we burn this ghastly painting?" Klaus asked. He didn't wait for an answer, he just reached up to unhook the frame and pulled along with them.

Once outside, Klaus threw the huge portrait into the pit. Vanya followed suit and tossed her hair in. Klaus dug around his pocket and pulled out a lighter. He lit a cigarette then tossed the glass vial into the pit so hard that it broke, dousing the painting with fluid.

"Any last words?" He asked while taking a long drag.

"I don't know, fuck the past?"

Klaus nodded at that, then threw the cigarette on top. "Fuck the past."

After a moment of eerie stillness, the fire burned through the center of the canvas. The edges got so hot that the wood just sprung loose of its confines. Their faces were swallowed in a white blue fire almost instantly. Klaus watched the fire spread across his face, then dug the thumbnail picture of Vanya out of his pocket.

"You can do the honors."

Vanya took the opportunity gladly and tossed the tiny picture of herself on top. Her and Reginald were the last to go as they laid there together, smoke billowing out from under the paintings frame. It made ash of the family then burned through Vanya's dark locks like nothing. After a while nothing was left but some of the gold inlaid in the frame.

The pair watched the fire dwindle down into multicolored embers. The sky had gone dark and the others still weren't back. Maybe they weren't coming back. Maybe it was time for Vanya and Klaus to leave too.

A silent beat passed, then Klaus spoke.

"Okay."

"Okay."

"So do you wanna get out of here?"

Vanya smiled at him. "Yes please."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading ^-^


End file.
